Elastic fabric



April 26, 1938. r R M, FOSTER 2,115,627

- ELASTIC FABRIC Filed Sept. 4, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet l April 26; 1938. Q FQSTER' 1 2,115,627

ELASTIC FABRIC I Filed Sept. 4, 1936 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 4 I on u wnuv v 1 r 0 I 7 7 a I I I I I zuL -J' 4-] v J I g? I; 4 I 4 I: Ill 1- I L, i? elwcmmwmmzmuwimw Patented a... 26,1938 I 2,115,627

ELASTIC memo Richard M. Foster, Camden, N. J., assignor to Hastings & McIntosh Truss Company, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application September 4, 1936, Serial No. 99,411

4 Claims. (01. 66-189) This invention relates to an elastic knitted have the same general appearance as the normal fabric adapted primarily for use in the manufacareas of the garment, whereby the presence of ture of personal garments and surgical appliances the garment, when worn, for example, under sheer including girdles, corsets, arm, leg, knee, elbow, hosiery, will not be rendered conspicuous, as freillNlTED STATES PATENT OFFlCE 5 wrist, ankle and abdominal bandages, or in an quently occurs when such articles are composed 5 article where a natural curvature is desirable, or of different stitch formations in the different in an article which will be subject to bending durareas respectively of the garment. mg 8- The construction of the fabric and its use in One object of the present invention is to prospecific forms of bandages will be fully disclosed 10 vide an elastic fabric wherein one portion or area hereinafter, reference being had to the accom- 10 thereof will be relatively shorter, in a walewise panying drawings; of which: direction, than another adjacent or surrounding Fig. i diagrammatically illustrates what is genarea; and wherein the foreshortened and normal erally referred to as a surgical stocking with the areas will be collectively composed of successively garment composed of fabric made in accordance knit courses of regularly formed stitches respecwith the principles of the present invention; 15 tively extending uninterruptedly through said Fig. 2 is a sar view illustrating what is nornormal and foreshortened areas, with a rubber mally referred to as a lmee bandage; and strand laid in each course or in relatively spaced Fig. 3 diagrammatically illustrates the stitch courses. formation of the fabric and the manner in which Another object of the invention is to construct a predetermined area thereof is foreshortened 20 the fabric in such a manner that the rubber walewise with respect to an adjacent or surstrands will he maintained in a common plane rounding area in accordance' with the principles throughout the whole of the fabric, including the of the present invention.

normal and relatively foreshortened areas, with- The fabric shown in Fig. 3 is of the rib type, out being staggered or overlapping to edect the i. e. it is composed of a plurality of stitchwales 25 foreshortening. a, a formed on one set or bank of needles, such,

Another object of the invention is to construct for example, as the cylinder needles of a circular a garment of the above noted fabric, in either a knitting machine, whereby the stitch wales a, a circular form, as could be knit on a circular lniitwould lie on one face, for example, the outer face 80 ting machine, or in a flat form, as could be lmit of the fabric, and a series of stitch wales b, b on a flat knitting machine, or wherein the flat formed on another set of needles, such, for exknit fabric would be provided with oppositely ample, as the dial needles of a circular knitting disposed edges arranged to be permanently or machine, whereby the stitch wales b, i) would be temporarily joined together to form a circular disposed on the opposite or back faceof the fabric.

garment, and in either case to position the fore- For the purpose of illustration and differentiation 35 shortened area in such relation to the normal the wales a, a will hereinafter be referred to as area as to provide a natural curvature in the tube the outside wales and the wales b, b as the inside or band so formed to causethe article to fit comwales of the fabric. fortably, for example, to position the foreshort- In the present illustration of Fig. 3, the fabric ened area at the various joints in those parts of shown is what is commonly referred to as a two- 40 the anatomy about which such articles are adaptto-one rib, i. e. the outside wales a, a are arranged ed to be applied. In cases where the article in pairs with single inside wales b disposed interwould be applied to the ankle or knee joints the mediate the pairs of outside wales. It will be foreshortened area, in the case of the ankle, understood, however, that the invention is not would be positioned in front of the ankle, i. e. restricted to the use of a two-to-one rib and may 45 across the instep; whereas, in the case of the be constructed of one-to-one or two-to-two rib article being applied to theknee joint, the forefabric, etc., wherein the inside wales alternate shortened area would be positioned behind or singularly or in pairs or in odd numbers with at the bend of the knee, in either case facilitating corresponding or difl'erent numbers of inside the bending of the limb at the joint encased by wales. 50

the article. The stitch wales a, a and b, b are formed as Another object of the invention is to produce a the result of knitting successive courses of stitches natural curved or foreshortened area and/or welt coordinately on the two banks of needles with the or marginal area in a garment such as a limb stitches ,of each course interlooped with the bandage, wherein the foreshortened areas will stitches of a preceding and a succeeding course 55 to form a complete fabric. Such a plurality of courses is illustrated at l to I! inclusive in Fig. 3.

Each of the courses I to I! is continuous throughout the width or circumference of the fabric and in each'course, in the present instance, is laid an elastic thread which may be of either bare, cut or extruded rubber or latex, or a similar strand provided with a spiral covering of fibrous thread as is common in articles of the types noted.

As shown in Fig. 3, the fabric may, according to the principles of the present invention, include normal areas A, A A, and A disposed respectively at the opposite sides and at the top and bottom of and surrounding the foreshortened area B. The stitch formation in the areas A, A A, and A is of the usual regular common stitch type, and wherein all of the stitches I6, in each of the successively knit and interlooped courses, are of a uniform predetermined length, which normally would produce an ordinary common knitted fabric which would be of uniform shape and appearance throughout its length and breadth or circumference when composed entirely of such uniform regular stitches.

The walewise foreshortening of the area B, according to the principles of the present invention, is effected by producing relatively shorter regular common stitches I 1, in alternate or in relatively spaced courses, in a predetermined number of immediately adjacent wales. For example, the unevenly numbered courses I, 3, 5, etc. are of regular length stitches I6 and the evenly numbered courses 2, 4, 6, etc. are of shortened length stitches l6, course I being the last course in the normal area A while course l forms the first course in the normal area A".

The sum of the difference between the collective lengths of the stitches in the successive courses in the normal areas and the collective lengths of the stitches in the foreshortened area determines the extent to which the area B would be foreshortened with respect to the adjacent areas A, A for example.

In the present instance, the shortened stitches I! are formed in alternate courses throughout the length of the area B as noted above. However, it is within the scope of the present invention that the courses containing the shortened stitches may be spaced as desired, for example, in every third or fourth course, etc.

The shortening of the stitches IS in predetermined courses may be readily effected during the knitting of the fabric by tightening or increasing thev tension on the knitting thread at predetermined intervals as. the thread} guide moves past predetermined needles or as said needles move past said thread guide, as the case may be, and applying normal tension to the thread during relative movement between the thread guide and the needles adapted for knitting those areas adjacent to the foreshortened area.

The knitting of relatively short regularly shaped stitches I! in a group of'im'mediately adjacent wales, including both the inside and outside wales, produces the efiect of foreshortening those particular wales with respect to the wales in the adjacent normal areas composed solely of the regular shaped and lengthened stitches IS.

The shortening of stitches in predetermined courses does not materially aifect the coursewise elasticity of the fabric, for the reason that when the fabric is stretched coursewise the short stitches being under abnormal tension tend to straighten out coursewise of the fabric, and in foreshortened area.

A practical application of the fabric shown in Fig. 3 is illustrated in Fig. 1 wherein the foreshortened area B is formed in the instep portion of a surgical stocking, such foreshortening of the fabric within said area producing a natural curvature in the front of the stocking, as illustrated at l8. In this application the marginal edges B of the foreshortened area B are in the form of steps produced by varying the number of needles to which the thread under the above noted abnormal tension is fed during the knitting of different groups of successively knit courses and by periodically increasing, then periodically decreasing the number of needles so affected in succeeding groups of stitch courses.

In the application illustrated in Fig. 2, the foreshortened area B is disposed at the back of the knee band providing a natural curvature l9 at that portion of the band which would lie immediately behind the knee, or at the bend of the knee. In this case, the marginal edges B of the foreshortened area B are varied at each succeeding course, whereby different portions of the marginal edges B are caused to lie at different angles with respect to the wales and courses of the fabric.

In each of the instances of Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the foreshortened area B is surrounded by normal areas A and A at the opposite sides respectively of the area B, and at the top and bottom of said area with normal areas A and A respectively.

In each of the instances of Fig. l and Fig. 2, the upper portion of the garment illustrated is provided with a welt area C, wherein alternate courses, or otherwise relatively spaced courses, are formed completely, from side to side or around the garment, of shortened stitches I! and intermediate complete courses of normal length stitches l6.

The fact that the normal stitches l6 and the shortened stitches I? are of the same general regular common form and differ only in length, while they retain substantially the said width, produces a garment in which there is no material difference in the appearance between the area composed of the normal length stitches and the fabric composed partly of normal length stitches and partly of the shortened length stitches, and what little difference in appearance may be apparent when the fabric is in a normally contracted condition disappears when the fabric is placed under slight lateral tension as when being worn. .For these reasons the fabric under conditions of use has a substantially uniform appearance throughout the garment and attracts no undue attention when worn under an outer garment composed of thin sheer fabric.

While the shortening of the stitches H has been described as being effected by increasing the tension on the knitting thread as such stitches are being formed, it will be apparent that in machines of the independently movable needle type, on which such bandages, etc. are commonly or frequently knitted, the difference in the lengths of the stitches l6 and I1 respectively may be produced by automatically or otherwise varying the position of the stitch cams with respect to the stitch casting point of the machines whereby a greater or lesser amount of knitting thread iii as required and whereby the change from the normal length stitch I6 to the shortened stitch i1 and vice versa may be eifected at will.

I claim:

1. A tubular ribbed knit fabric comprising two laterally adjacent areas composed conj unctly of complete continuous successively knit courses of stitches forming inside and outside wales with rubber strands laid in predetermined courses between said inside and outside wales, said predetermined courses being composed of regular full length stitches loosely embracing the. rubber strands in one of said areas and regular short length stitches tightly embracing the same rubber strands in the other of said areas, said fabric also including within and extending across said laterally adjacent areas in parallel interposed relation to saidpredetermlne'd courses, additional courses composed solely of full length stitches loosely embracing said rubber strands respectively laid in said interposed courses.

2. A tubular ribbed knit fabric comprising two laterally adjacent areas composed conjunctly of complete continuous successively knit courses of stitches forming inside and outside wales with rubber strands laid in predetermined courses between said inside and outside wales, said predetermined courses being composed of regular full length stitches loosely embracing the rubber strands in one of said areas and regular short length stitches tightly embracing'the same rubber strands in the other of said areas, said fabric also including within and extending across said laterally adjacent areas in parallel interposed relation to said predetermined courses, additional courses composed solely of full length stitches loosely embracing rubber strands respectively laid in said interposed courses, said fabric at and beyond the opposite ends of said laterally adjacent areas including successive courses composed solely of full length stitches with rubber strands therein and loosely'embraced thereby.

3. A tubular knit surgical stocking including a foot section, a leg section and a section intermediate said leg and foot sections-said intermediate section including a front area and a laterally adjacent area at each side of said front area, said stocking being formed of ribbed knit fabric composed of complete continuous successively knit courses of stitches forming inside and outside wales with rubber strands laid in predetermined courses between said inside and outside wales, said predetermined courses being composed of regular full length stitches loosely embracing the rubber strands in said side areas and regular short length stitches tightly embracing the same rubber strands in said instep area, said stocking also including within and extending across said front and side areas in alternating relation to said predetermined courses, additional courses composed solely of full length stitches loosely embracing rubber strands respectively laid in said additional courses, and said stocking also including successively knit courses composed solely of full length stitches with loosely embraced rubber strands therein in said leg and foot sections at the opposite ends of said intermediate section.

4. A tubular knit surgical knee band comprising a front area and a back area formed of ribbed knit fabric composed of complete continuous successive'ly knit courses of stitches forming inside and outside wales with rubber strands laid in predetermined courses between said inside and outside wales, said predetermined courses being composed of regular full length stitches loosely embracing the rubber strands in said front area and regular short length stitches tightly embracing the same rubber strands in said back area, said knee band also including within and extending across said front and back areas in alternating relation to said predetermined courses, additional courses composedsolely of full length stitches loosely embracing rubber strands respectively laid in said additional courses, and said knee band also including successively knit courses composed of full length stitches with loosely embraced rubber strands therein-in circumferential. areas adjacent each of the opposite ends of said front and back areas.

RICHARD M. FOSTER. 

